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

Roseharper I wonder it that's why I enjoyed ATLA less last time I read it, it didn't appeal as much as when I read it 30 years ago (those of you in your 30s can be quiet about how young you are!). It does seem to have dated more than other NS books like Trustee from the toolroom and Pied Piper

Thank you Satsuki

Rose, we have similar views on I am an Island.

bett, glad you got good news. And you can't tease us with hints of your Secret Service days like that...

@bibliomania

Rose, we have similar views on I am an Island.

bett, glad you got good news. And you can't tease us with hints of your Secret Service days like that...

Secret service! I wish I did work somewhere that was bugged though and we had very strict communication rules because of the Cold War.

You have to reveal more. Unless you had to sign the Official Secrets Act...

Glad to hear it's good news Betts

226. The Searcher - Tana French A retired Chicago cop moves to rural Ireland in an old farmhouse, planning to fix it up. After a few months he is approached by a local teen looking for help with a missing person and reluctantly gets involved.

I like her writing but she's another one who could do with an editor with very big pruning shears. She certainly draws you in, but it is a slow burn. She captures the craic of the old guys in the pub so well. Lots of atmosphere and a decent plot even if it does go on a bit.

Currently reading Apeirogon which is on the Booker shortlist. I can see why. Good, but there for the experimental style as much as the content. 1000 chapters, some of them only one sentence long. It's a jigsaw puzzle of a book. It is getting a little tedious though. Based on the others I've read so far, I think this will win.

I'm not reading the Booker list this year, but I'm also not not reading it. Some I'd already read and others if I come across them in the library I will pick up if I fancy them. I'm just not going out of my way to buy/read them like I usually would.

Thanks for the replies, love these threads. I read so many books I would never have come across before...they have really expanded my range of books.

@bibliomania

You have to reveal more. Unless you had to sign the Official Secrets Act...

I did, but then so did lots of people. Honestly I didn't really do anything exciting and it's all public domain stuff nowadays or outdated technology anyway.

143. Mongol by Uuganaa Ramsay

Though the USP of this autobiography is that Uuganaa Ramsay, a Mongolian, came to Britain, had a son with Downs Syndrome and discovered "mongol" was a nasty slur term, this side of things is only really discussed near the books close.

What the books strength is, as a look into a culture about which most of us know little, the celebrations, the rituals, the community.

An interesting book, with a heartbreaking simplicity to it of one woman's life and one mothers love.

221. You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

Collection of short stories. I wasn’t really a fan of these - I finished each one unsure what I was meant to conclude from it. They are well written though and she does still manage to bring out the characters even though it is only a short story.

222. At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald

Another disappointment. This is set in a stage school in1963 and I was expecting a sort of grown up Ballet Shoes, but I just found this really boring. You only really hear anything about two of the pupils. You hear a lot about two rather dull teachers. The owner of the stage school, the eponymous Freddie, doesn’t really do anything but everybody inexplicably loves her. I only finished this because it was short.

223. Playing Nice by J P Delaney

This is based around the idea of babies being swapped in hospital. A couple are suddenly visited one day by a man who claims that their babies have been swapped and the children they’re raising aren’t biologically theirs. Initially the couples get on well and everything is amicable but relations soon deteriorate. I found this fascinating in showing how easy it is for normal parenting events to be repackaged as something sinister by people with another agenda.

224. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

Quite a few people here have already read this. For those who haven’t, it focuses on Shakespeare’s wife and children (Shakespeare is never actually named though!). The title is a bit misleading as it’s much more about Anne Hathaway (called Agnes here) than it is about Hamnet. I enjoyed reading a new perspective on Shakespeare and his relationships and also the link between his son Hamnet and the writing of the play Hamlet.

225. Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

I’m really not sure what this was meant to be about. A woman goes through a relatively bad day while looking back on the events which led her to fall out with her sister. It was a very quick read though. I think it was meant to be light hearted but I didn’t really get on with it.

226. The Flip Side by James Bailey

Ladlit about a man who decides to rely on the flip of a coin for every decision after his girlfriend refuses his marriage proposal. I was expecting lots of comedy about him getting into ridiculous situations as a result of this, but there’s a couple of half hearted funny bits then the rest of the book is just him trying to track down a girl he’s met. It was ok but a bit of a waste of the idea really.

227. Shagged. Married. Annoyed. by Chris and Rosie Ramsey

Based on their podcast, this is basically the written equivalent of them having a chat about sex, relationships, marriage and parenting. It’s funny but also quite crude in places.

228. House of Correction by Nicci French

Tabitha is in prison accused of murder. She has mental health issues which means she cannot remember the events of the day. Inexplicably she decides to sack her lawyers and run her own defence. Nicci French books are usually good but this wasn’t really. Most of the book is just Tabitha in prison looking through all the evidence. There’s a really boring section where she just looks through loads of CCTV and we get all the detail of what’s on there. The trial livened things up again but the main character was really irritating and the whole idea of sacking her lawyers was just ridiculous. Not one of their best.

229. Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Saffyre is a troubled girl who goes missing. Owen is a socially inept man who comes under suspicion of her abduction. This wasn’t bad, and the characters and setting were well done.

114. Anti-social, by Nick Pettigrew
Belongs to the booming recent genre lamenting the fàlling apart of the public sector and the toll it takes on people doing their best in a broken system. Has been compared to Adam Kay - a certain jaundiced dark humour, but with an underlying seriousness. Worth the read.

They compare everything to Adam Kay now, don't they? It is so much more earnest!

Afternoon all. Tier three lockdown, heavy rain and few days off might increase my reading pace this week. Perhaps.
30. Elmet by Fiona Mozley Danny and Cathy are teens living in impoverished rural North Yorkshire in a house built by their father. Daddy is a shady figure, who tries to eke out the family's survival by fair means or foul. The family repeatedly crosses paths with sinister local landowner Mr Price, with awful consequences.

The novel started slowly and built pace, in a series of events that became increasingly gripping. I liked the three main characters, but others were less developed, and Price was almost cartoonishly villainous. There were a few passages interspersed from Danny's current whereabouts that felt too slight to add much. However the writing here was great and the setting very evocative and atmospheric.

62. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple, always enjoyable.

eine I enjoyed reading Mongol for much the same reasons as you, it's well worth it. biblio I read the Pettigrew book not long ago, it's nothing like Adam Kay beyond the concept really is it ?

I càn understand reaching for the Adam Kay comparisons, as I think even people who don't read much read his book. I don't think it's entirely unfair. I know some people felt AK was pretty inappropriate, but it made sense to me as the cynical, jaded carapace that someone uses to protect themselves when they've spent too long in situations where they can't fix things.

I agree, biblio. I wasn’t a huge fan of Kay’s writing style but I do think the humour was a reasonable response to the situation he found himself in and had a lot in common with the way my medic friends talk about their jobs. I don’t think his book was a patch on The Secret Barrister’s first one, which in my view was both well written and even handed, but they do perform an important role in educating people (me, anyway) about these aspects of the public sphere that we never think about until we suddenly need them.

@PepeLePew

I agree, biblio. I wasn’t a huge fan of Kay’s writing style but I do think the humour was a reasonable response to the situation he found himself in and had a lot in common with the way my medic friends talk about their jobs. I don’t think his book was a patch on The Secret Barrister’s first one, which in my view was both well written and even handed, but they do perform an important role in educating people (me, anyway) about these aspects of the public sphere that we never think about until we suddenly need them.

I agree about Kay's humour as my sense of humour is much the same in some respects. The Pettigrew book seemed difference, perhaps because of the author's issues with his mental health. I have no idea how he managed to do the job for so long.

227 Apeirogon - Colum McCann
Set in a divided Jerusalem, two fathers, one Israeli, one Palestinian, each lose a young daughter in the conflict. One is shot by soldiers, the other killed by a suicide bomber. The two men meet through a parent circle and realise that they are united in grief regardless of the 'side' of the conflict they are meant to be on. This is based on the experiences of two real people. It is told in a deliberately fragmented way leaving the reader to piece together then events. It also looks at the history of the area and the migration of birds.

I mentioned upthread that this had been shortlisted for the Booker, but I was mistaken and therefore it definitely won't win! It's a very Booker Prize book. I found the form a little annoying after a while, as I think the story of the two men and their daughters was interesting enough to tell in a more straightforward way without trying to be quite so edgy in the writing. It is very moving and really interesting.

79: Madeleines in Manhattan - Colette Rossant

An easy, soothing read, and the last of the author's food-based memoirs, covering her life in New York after marriage to her American architect husband, Jimmy.

The early years weren't easy, thanks to Jimmy's grim-sounding family and the dearth of decent fresh food - especially hard for a half-Egyptian, half-Parisian cooking-mad young woman. Gradually she discovers small local food-stores and markets, and gains a reputation as an inventive cook. Juggling teaching jobs, Colette lands magazine columns, reviewing work and children's cooking classes which make her well-known, along with a stream of cookery books. All this while raising 4 children and tending to a husband who sounds like hard work a lot of the time ('don't worry!' seems to be his laidback response to every crisis, which usually equates to 'I'm leaving this to you to sort out'). However, she clearly loves him dearly and I'm glad she insisted on making the 2-week work trip to Tokyo which he didn't want her to go on, despite his own disappearance to Tanzania for months on end.

All 3 books are certainly worth reading if you like a gentle food memoir, with recipes.

144. Wild Swans by Jung Chang (Audible)

Jesus Christ.

Allegedly a "modern classic" and a "must read"

Unremittingly dull, repetitive, poorly written.

Naturally, on the day you stick your finger up your Aunt's arse to help her poo you think to yourself "this is one I must remember for my autobiography"

Can only think its reputation is as a consequence of there being, few, at the time, books from Chinese dissidents talking about life under Mao.

I have finished it but it was the very definition of an uphill slog.

Would never recommend. Such a relief it's over.

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit

144. Wild Swans by Jung Chang (Audible)

Jesus Christ.

Allegedly a "modern classic" and a "must read"

Unremittingly dull, repetitive, poorly written.

Naturally, on the day you stick your finger up your Aunt's arse to help her poo you think to yourself "this is one I must remember for my autobiography"

Can only think its reputation is as a consequence of there being, few, at the time, books from Chinese dissidents talking about life under Mao.

I have finished it but it was the very definition of an uphill slog.

Would never recommend. Such a relief it's over.

Let my clarify things, You are trying to say you didn't like it?

Tbf, I'm pretty sure I would remember sticking my hand up my aunt's bum,

115.A Conspiracy of Bones, Kathy Reichs
The heroine of this series, Tempe Brennan, is at her best when she is elbow-deep in a cadaver telling you all about the significance of this little bone. This installment takes her out of the lab, having fallen out with the new director, so she's reduced to a kind of Nancy Drew figure, shining her flashlight around mysterious buildings. There are too many strands and the overall effect is unsatisfying. Not one of the better ones n this series.

Or even just my finger.

Can everyone please just keep their hands on the table where we can all see them.

I've started Rodham and I'm not convinced.

"Can only think its reputation is as a consequence of there being, few, at the time, books from Chinese dissidents talking about life under Mao."

I think you're probably right - I remember reading it when it first came out & being fascinated, but I think there's been a lot more books about China since then!